Ed Welburn Exudes His Love Over A Future Four-Door Convertible

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We simply have to echo Road & Track’s love for a giant, yacht-like four-door convertible There’s something simply American about a barge of a car with no roof.

Despite the convertible market retracting more and more each year, a four-door convertible would make for a stunning centerpiece for a certain luxury line from General Motors, no? R&T had a few words with General Motors chief of global design, Ed Welburn, over the matter.

“When you’re doing a convertible, you’re taking away a lot of structure,” Welburn said. “When you make a four-door convertible, even more of the structure goes away, and the car would flex a lot.”

What does he mean? He means a four-door convertible would act just as you may remember one from yore: heavy, cumbersome and it would suck gas like a five-year old drinking a juice box.

“Your fuel efficiency would really suffer tremendously,” he added. “You could design it to meet all the regulations, but at the end of the day, after doing all of that, I think it would be a very, very heavy car—rather cumbersome.”

But, there is hope convertible connoisseurs.

“As we have more breakthroughs in materials and that mass comes down . . . if that breakthrough comes, it will happen,” he says. “It’s not going to happen in the next couple of years, but we’ll see.”

See, the 2000s up until present have been an interesting time for automotive design. Calls for vehicles to withstand their own weight under a roll-over crash, and other various safety measures, have had automakers scrambling to conform. This is also what killed the skinny pillars responsible for some of the elegant designs we love from yesteryear.

But, as materials evolve and change, we may one day be able to create that elegant A-pillar again, and maybe forego the B-pillar, too. Welburn noted it won’t happen any time soon, but there’s definitely some love for the idea in the future.

“It just brings a smile to your face when you think of a convertible that size and being able to travel—two couples, I just think of two couples or even a family in something like that,” he says. “It’s like a wonderful painting. There is nothing edgy or harsh about it at all.”

Cadillac’s recent concept cars are to die for.. as the Ciel and the Elmiraj looked incredible; but the real question is whether Cadillac can bring the production cars that share sensual beauty of the Ciel or Elmiraj.

Well Cadillac and Johann have sent the signal with their message that if they were to do a Halo car it would be something like a 4 door convertible as this is what Cadillac years ago was built on and what they used to represent.

Ed’s message here I think is a signal that this is where they would like to go but technology has to play out like the Nano Steel they are working on first.

Johann has said a mid engine car would be nice but not till 2025 would they even be able to consider putting one on the market with so many other things to do.

Right now the focus is to build a world class CT8 revamp the ATS, CTS and CT6 to better reflect where the present management wants. While they are great cars they are not good enough for those in charge now. they have made this clear.

Also look for a smaller model as well as some more CUV and SUV models.

The changes in Cadillac in the next 5 years will be much more dramatic than they have been. Those in charge now has a larger vision for the future and are not tied to GM to the point they have to compromise as past managers. The freedom of being in NYC will keep them much more independent and able to do what they want to do with little to no interference.

We have yet to see anything Johann wants and we have yet to see any of the $12 Billion they have to make it right.

I for one am very excited as I expect to see things like we have not seen from Cadillac in nearly half a century.

While some say Lincoln is improving well you have not see anything yet at Cadillac. If they did the ATS, CTS and CT6 under duress of GM management imagine what they can do on their own.

Mark Ruess had to fight tooth and nail to get what he got on the CT6 and while it is a better car it is still not what he wanted either.